MR. G SPEAKING ...

"Hello, hello, hello, this is Mr. G., Mr. G. speaking," Peter Paul Gadarowski said as he answered the phone in his high-pitched, squeaky voice.

How is he, the person on the other end asked.

"Alive, breathing, numb, and dumb," he said, laughing.

Always upbeat and positive, Mr. G. offers the caller his familiar farewell before he hangs up: "Keep smiling, think safety, stay healthy, God loves you. Keep smiling." That refrain has become a mantra for this 85-year-old, a Boy Scout since 1927, a veteran of two wars, a trumpet player and donor of American flags to widows of veterans. It represents his outlook on life, and is the message he tries to imbue in the children he meets in his two Boy Scout troops, at St. Patrick's Church, and at Thomas G. Alcorn Elementary School where he tutors in an after-school program.

Today's youth, Gadarowski believes, have it tough with high divorce rates, single parents, and the violence they see around them and on television.

"These kids don't have it easy. They don't have it easy. ... Our youth is our future," Gadarowski said, looking down and away, his shining eyes shrinking and lips drooping.

That face is one of two Gadarowski employs often. The other is his happy face, a wide-eyed, toothy, laughing grin that he uses to motivate children -- along with his instructional pamphlets.

Encounter Gadarowski for more than a few minutes and he'll give you a folded piece of paper with his secrets to life. "God does not make junk." "Logic." "You are #1." "Never, never sell yourself short." "You are infinitely precious with a great mind." "Think, Think research." "Be prepared." "God is Never, Never Out Done."

Oftentimes the pamphlets carry silver dollars or candy.

Gadarowski "is very enthusiastic too, he's not a negative person," said Anthony Secondo, commander of American Legion Post 154. "If you make a phone call to him he's cheery immediately when he answers the telephone. He's always trying to help out in any way possible even though he has physical problems. He has a tremendous outlook on life,"

Mr. G., as he is widely known, "is extremely upbeat, especially considering what he's gone through and his age," said Matthew Uricchio, 20, an assistant scoutmaster and Gadarowski's longtime friend.

Four of Gadarowski's six children are dead.

According to one of his two remaining sons, John Gadarowski, 47, of Centennial, Colo., one of three other sons, Stephen, went into convulsions on an amusement park ride in 1972 and never recovered. Gadarowski's only daughter, Cecilia, succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning in a car in 1986. John's twin brother, Tom, a Glastonbury police officer, fatally shot himself in February of 2000. His death was ruled a suicide.

Four months later, Robert Gadarowski, who had cancer and battled depression, hanged himself.

Gadarowski's other living son, Eddie, lives in Cambridge, N.Y., and works for the Air Force.

Gadarowski won't talk about his deceased children. Nor will he relate any of his stories from World War II -- even to his children. He will only say that he served on a boat that planted and swept for mines in the North Atlantic.

"All I can tell you is war is man-made hell, period," he said before switching the subject to talk about children.

Gadarowski "is the highlight of my life," said Kim Bridge, 25, a former neighbor and one of the "angels this side of heaven," as Gadarowski calls her. So is Laura Fagen, 16, whom he taught to play the trumpet. Bridge and Fagen play with Gadarowski for free at military funerals and during veterans parades.

"He's just, he's just such a good person that it's like somebody can't do any wrong. He only sees good in people," Bridge said. "Him and Mrs. G., I've made them my surrogate grandparents."

"Mrs. G." is Mary Francis Gadarowski, 83, Peter's wife of 56 years. The two met in a hospital in Massachusetts after Peter suffered a spine injury in World War II. Mary Francis, also a veteran, was Peter's nurse during his 11-month stay. On August 2, 1946, they were married.

"I've been married to her 56 years and no complaints. ... She's a charming, charming lady. Thank God we're still alive," Gadarowski said.

Recently, Mary Francis entered a VA hospital in Northampton, Mass., for what her son John calls "a very strong touch of dementia." Gadarowski drives his 1989 Chevy Celebrity up I-91 every other day to see her. He looks forward to September when Mary Francis will move to a nursing home in Enfield.

"He's slipping away and she's slipping away," Bridge said, "and they need to do it together."

When Gadarowski finally does pass on, one of his legacies will be a campsite in Massachusetts that he set aside in a trust for boy and girl scouts -- and anybody else for that matter -- to camp on and use "to get away from this rat race world."

Another legacy will be the same message he leaves on his answering machine: "Keep smiling, God loves you all, over and out."